Ducks act like sharks in smelling San Jose blood

ANAHEIM -- It was a night of flying helmets, thrown gloves, and penalty boxes that forced you to take a number.

It was a Sixth Game but it was played like a Twelfth Round. Thanks to an all-hands-on-deck performance by the Ducks, there's no need to worry about what's left for Game 7.

Once again, the masters of the process of elimination snuffed out someone else's season. The eighth-seeded Ducks sent San Jose off to another summer of doubt with a 4-1 victory that ended this first-round series in six terrific games.

And, for the fifth time, the Ducks will take on another wary rival, the Detroit Red Wings, in a Western Conference semifinal that will begin in Hockeytown.

Opponents are now 0-9 when they try to avoid season's end in Anaheim, and this time it was especially well-timed because Game 7 would have been in San Jose Wednesday night. But now that the Sharks have watched another Pacific Division regular-season championship melt in the hot lava of the playoffs, one even wonders about that.

"You have to build your momentum through the playoffs," Teemu Selanne said. "We came in playing very well, San Jose was cruising into the playoffs. I thought we were hungrier."

The Ducks wound up outscoring San Jose in 5 on 5 situations, 12-5, and their top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan completely undressed their Sharks opponents.

"When you play against their top line you have to be responsible, have to protect defensively, have to fight for every inch of ice time," Perry said. "We've played against them before. But the bar really got raised in this series."

What's that saying about your best players having to be your best players? The Ducks' top line outscored San Jose's 16-11, and defensemen Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger outscored Dan Boyle and Rob Blake by three.

This police action officially became a war as soon as referee Eric Furlatt dropped the first puck. Before it bounced, Joe Thornton and Getzlaf, the No. 1 centers, were locked in a fight that drew its fuel from five games of bitter space-invading.

"I had no idea," said Perry, Getzlaf's best friend. "But it was awesome."

The first of four minor penalties against the Ducks came along less than a minute and a half later, none of them particularly prudent. The Ducks eventually paid the price on James Wisniewski's slash of Marcel Goc (which did seem a little nickel-dime-ish), Milan Michalek banged home a rebound off Rob Blake's shot, which followed a clean faceoff win by Joe Pavelski.

But the Ducks picked up a 4-on-3 situation when Patrick Marleau hooked Wisniewski. They had that edge for only 11 seconds, but needed only 10 of them before Perry tipped in Getzlaf's screamer, with Scott Niedenmayer nearby.

The rest of it was just sweet malevolence, as long as you were behind the netting. They should have put a warning track all the way around a rink, because nobody got near the boards without getting stapled.

The Sharks belabored Hiller mightily in the second period, especially on a power play in which the puck did everything but get across the line. But the Ducks escaped it, and eventually Erik Christensen came down with open ice. He slid a crisp pass to Andrew Ebbett, who was knocked off the chance by San Jose's Torrey Mitchell. Tactically, a good penalty, but the Ducks needed only nine seconds to redeem it, with Teemu Selanne getting his first postseason goal when his attempted pass to Getzlaf bounced off Christian Ehrhoff's stick and past Nabokov.

"Every ounce," Beauchemin said with a smile.

The Sharks were just regrouping when Beauchemin got inside the blue line and launched all 207 pounds into a slapper that whizzed past Mike Brown, who had gone behind the net to fetch the puck, and also past Nabokov. The building boomed louder than it has at any time since the Cup-clinching game in 2007, and the Ducks led 3-1 with 5:34 left in the second.

San Jose did not quit but did not score either, and thus became the ninth No. 1 seed to lose a first-round series to a No. 8 since 1994.

Now come the Red Wings, bursting with talent and strength and experience. A word of warning to the champs: If it comes down to a fight for your playoff life, don't fight it here.

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